Hinduism Doctrine And Way Of Life
Major Sections
Books By Rajaji

THE FIRST STEP

It is only then that his life becomes
one of unswerving devotion to truth, and marked by detachment and utter fearlessness. "There is that in Me which cannot perish; indeed I am that and hot this body or the senses working in this body; I cannot be hurt by anything that can happen except by the evil that I think or do; the evil things that come from within Me defile my soul, not any thing that comes to Me from outside; the evil that others do may touch My body but it cannot touch the soul" This is the faith that is common ground for all religions, but all the same itis  the basic doubt of all men, the removal of which is the essential first step of enlightenment.

If men attain this first step, the battle is practically won. Vedanta emphasizes the importance of this first step. That is why the Upanishads speak not only of the Parama-atman, the Supreme Being, but again and again deal in many and various ways with the individual soul. The Gita begins with this by dealing with death and killing in the first discourse.It is not to foster the spirit of cruelty and war that Krishna’s famous discourse begins in the manner that it does. It is to emphasize the first truth before at tempting to teach anything else.  

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